I am writing this letter to you on behalf of many Pakistani Internet users who are currently fighting their government’s attempt to restrict their access to information. The 20 million Internet users in Pakistan are on the brink of being monitored, filtered and possibly silenced for their views, and we fear that the government of China and Chinese spy-tech companies are aiding this human rights violations. It is distressing that Chinese companies have been named as being involved in aiding authoritarian regimes. Chinese companies like ZTE Corp and Huwaei have been accused of aiding censorship in Libya and Iran. Although it is difficult to track China’s involvement, there are no qualms about China’s censorship model being an ideal for developing countries and authoritative regimes.

We reach out to you to appeal for solidarity. We hope that you will stand by us and strengthen our appeal to Chinese surveillance companies and the government of China to not aid the Government in Pakistan in shrinking our space and eventually silencing our voices.

For the past few years, the government has been using religion and morality as a ploy to restrict and monitor information. This is a dangerous precedent in a country marred by censorship imposed by military dictators and civilian governments. Consider how the people of Balochistan, one of our largest provinces, took to the blogosphere to report illegal abductions and extra-judicial killings by state agencies. In turn, the authorities responded by blocking access to these sites. In the absence of mainstream media coverage, the Baloch people have no other medium to voice their protest against the human rights violations taking place. As mutilated dead bodies keep turning up on roadsides, their families continue to be silenced. Moreover, the censors are rampant and irrational. For one, a website selling handmade shoes was blocked and without legal recourse, small businesses had to suffer the most.

But how does all this relate to you? For as long as we have known, our history books have taught us that China is our friend, our ally, and is considered an ideal model to follow for development and advancement in technology. While the authorities remain enamored by China’s fast growing economic model, they have also long been eyeing the China’s system of censorship and surveillance. When rights advocates, academics, policy makers and entrepreneurs speak to the government regarding the repercussions of blanket surveillance and censorship, the government authorities point to the China example citing it as an exemplary model. We know that is not entirely true, for we have witnessed mainland Chinese netizens seeking to bypass Internet filters and protesting against blanket surveillance – a complete space rather than a filtered version provided by the state. Where we hold hands in solidarity is the increasing absurd nature of censorship: from banning the word “shoe” in Pakistan, to filtering the words … “jasmine” “river crab” “18th congress” etc. in China

Over the decades, our social spaces have shrunk, hubs of culture and art have been eradicated and human rights are now competing with ad hoc measures under the guise of counter-terrorism. For now the only space that allows many of us to remain anonymous or debate issues considered controversial is also shrinking.